1. Area of the Art
The present invention concerns the area of telepresence communication terminals and systems so that people can see and hear one another from a distance in a realistic manner and, also, structure their organization around such communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Videoconferencing has suffered from many problems that have affected its quality of performance and speed of adoption among consumers. Videoconferencing has suffered from costs of connection using ISDN to the complications of traversing firewalls for IP conferencing. Also, image quality is usually far less than common broadcast TV. Lastly, the human factors of videoconferencing have been a severe detriment to the quality of the communication experience. From the common web camera on top of the computer monitor to the codec appliance on top of a roll-about cart in a meeting room, most videoconferencing systems ignore fundamental aspects of human communication. With these systems, people appear to be looking away and not eye-to-eye and images of the conferees are often very small. As a result, videoconferencing is a poor communication medium, because it is recreating a false reality for the conferees where non-verbal cues are confused due to incorrect eye gaze and the conferees being awkwardly small.
Prior art FIG. 1 illustrates an image display 2 displaying a group of distant conferees 8 seated at a distant conference table 6. The group of distant conferees 8 if seen on a 50 inch plasma screen would appear about 85% smaller then life-size. Likewise, a common multipoint window array 14 (FIG. 2) shows the unnatural appearance of a stacked conferee 10 in a small stacked window 12. Again, if a 50″ plasma panel were used the many stacked conferees 10 would appear about 85% smaller then life. Such small images of people, detracts from being able to see non-verbal body language which is the whole point of videoconferencing.
Large screen videoconferencing systems and multiple displays side-by-side have been utilized to create many life-size videoconferencing participants. These systems, though, often suffer from extreme bulk due to the depth of rear projection housings or poor image quality associated with front projection in meeting room lit environments. Multiple side-by-side displays are expensive solutions and require multiple codecs to operate. Also, eye contact suffers in these systems since the cameras are mounted at the boundaries of the large images.
In FIGS. 1 and 2, the camera 4 is seen on top of the display 2 which creates the awkward appearance of a bird's eye view down upon the group of distant conferees 8 and the stacked conferees 10. While the conferees look into their display to make eye contact they fail to look into the camera up above and hence the conferees appear to one another in their display to be looking down. Alternatively, if the camera 4 was mounted below the display the conferees would appear to be looking up. Still further, if the camera 4 was mounted to the side of the display 2 they would appear to be looking to the side. Eye contact is the chief of non-verbal cues and displaying an image of a person looking away when they intend to make eye contact is very distracting to quality communication. Essentially, traditional videoconferencing systems create a false non-verbal cue of seemingly looking away.
Several technologies have proposed a solution for resolving the eye contact problem. Optical light division using a beamsplitter 16 is seen in prior art FIG. 3. The beamsplitter 16 reflects the image display 2 so that a local conferee 18 views the reflection on the beamsplitter 16. The camera 4 is mounted behind the beamsplitter 16 and is aimed through the beamsplitter 16 capturing an image of the local conferee 18. An alternative use of the beamsplitter 16 reflects the local conferee 18 and that reflection is captured by the camera 4 (not shown). The local conferee 18 views the display 2 through the beamsplitter 16. Prior art FIG. 5 illustrates aiming the camera 4 through a transparent imaging device such as a liquid crystal display 24. The art has yet to present a method to aim the camera 4 through this type of prior art system without image quality reduction of the camera 4 and the LCD 24. Other eye contact technologies include image manipulating eye contact as is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,357. Image synthesis systems combining images from a left side camera 22 and a right side camera 23 (more cameras can be used) of the local conferee 18 has also been proposed as seen in prior art FIG. 5. These systems are expensive and complicated and provide inferior image results. Still further, the camera 4 has been mounted behind a common rear projection screen 24 as seen in prior art FIG. 6. These rear projection systems are extremely bulky and take up a large portion of valuable room space. Also, the camera 4 blocks a portion of the projected light from a projector 26 causing a shadow on the screen (not seen). Other rear projection eye contact technologies have also been proposed. An alternating liquid crystal screen that is diffused in one state and semitransparent in another state is synchronized with the camera 4 and the projector 26 to enable eye contact. This system, as well, suffers from image quality issues.
A common front projection screen 28 (prior art FIG. 7) has an open hole 30 in which the camera 4 captures an image of the local conferee 18 through. Front projection suffers from poor image quality in brightly lit meeting room environments where both brightness and contrast are reduced. Common front projection screens include simple white, grey, beaded, and reflective type surfaces. These common projection screens require the room light to be dimmed to a point where the projected images can be clearly seen and the images have high contrast (black levels). Unfortunately, the room lights must be dimmed so much that a meeting room environment becomes nonfunctional for common meeting tasks due to lack of ambient light. Also, the dark room does not permit effective image capturing of the conferees in the room for transmitting to the distant site. As a result, large screen videoconferencing rooms have relied on rear projection screens, because of its ability to maintain acceptable levels of brightness and contrast.
The prior art teaches in U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,433 placing a camera behind one of two screens at a workstation. The two screens are adjacent to one another at 90 degrees and thereby opposing one another. The viewer sits at an extreme oblique angle to both screens when viewing them. Since the screens are intended to be viewed from an oblique angle, the patent teaches the use of beveled lenses on the screens to improve the screen viewing from such extreme angles. The “introduction of bevels into the projection surface reduces the ambient light level of the opposing projection screen as the reflected light from projection screens . . . are reflected away from the opposing projection screen.” As taught, the bevels do not reject ambient light from the room, but reduce the ambient light produced by the projection screens and thereby affecting the viewing of the opposing screen. The bevels, chiefly, are intended to enable the viewing of the image from a very sharp oblique angle and still have a uniform image. The prior art system suffers from the same issues as common front projection where contrast and brightness are substantially reduced by ambient room light. The prior art does not teach the use of ambient light rejecting filters that reject ambient room light from above, below, to the left and to the right of the projection screen and shooting a camera through a hole in such filters.
With all the hope and promise of videoconferencing over the past 25 years, videoconferencing has had surprisingly little impact on the way people form business organizations. Predominantly corporate videoconferencing is used to link one corporate meeting room with another. In essence, they extend the corporate campus out to other corporate campuses. The mantra “it is cheaper then flying” sums up the reason why businesses elect to invest in videoconferencing systems. But, the usual complaint, as described above (i.e., it just does not feel like you're there) prevails. Web cameras have also not been used as serious business communication tool because of the poor image and human factor issues. It is very apparent that videoconferencing has not delivered on its hope and promise as evident by the growth in the automobile and airline industries. So humans continue to consume natural resources and consume their time traveling to and from work. On an organizational level and, thereby, a societal level, videoconferencing has made little impact.
What is needed is a true telepresence experience that brings individuals from corporate meeting rooms to other meeting rooms and, also, to homes to have a real impact. The experience needs to be substantially different than common videoconferencing. True telepresence combines substantially life-size images, eye contact, high quality audio and video in an experience as if the imaged conferee is sitting on the other side of the desk or table. What is needed is a total system that is designed for organizational enablement where the confines of the corporate office and buildings are shattered. Upon doing so, people from their homes and small offices can be participants in a true virtual organization where the telepresence organization becomes the central spoke of human social interaction and not the corporate building. Central to that organizational enablement are all the support tools essential to running a business embedded into an individual's telepresence terminal system and coordinated into a community of telepresence systems.